About Us

The Metta Dharma Foundation is guided by the basic core values of harmonious living through moral conduct, opening our hearts through lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity, and the wisdom practices of vipassana (insight) and concentration meditation.

To support practitioners to deepen and integrate these values more fully in all areas of their daily lives we offer a variety of programs and activities, which include regular weekly gatherings for meditation, dharma talks and discussion, and various classes, daylong meditation and study retreats, and residential retreats held at centers throughout the Bay Area.

Classes and retreats are taught by Richard Shankman, the guiding teacher of the Metta Dharma Foundation, and other teachers.

For more information on our classes and offerings, please visit our Calendar page.

Richard Shankman

Richard Shankman has been a meditator since 1970, and teaches at Dharma centers and groups internationally. He is guiding teacher of the Metta Dharma Foundation, and cofounder of the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies and of Mindful Schools. He practices and teaches meditation that integrates compassion, mindfulness, concentration and insight as one path of practice. Richard is the author of The Art and Skill of Buddhist Meditation and The Experience of Samadhi.

Richard Shankman

Bourke Harris

Bourke Harris began his Buddhist path of practice 1n 1991 in conjunction with the study of Tai Chi. He is a graduate of the Path of Engagement Program at Spirit Rock and The Buddhist Chaplaincy Training at IMC (Redwood City). A husband, father, grandfather, and retired Structural Steel Contractor, Bourke was a volunteer chaplain at Laguna Honda Hospital for 9 years, a mindfulness mentor in a K-5 east Oakland school, and a mindfulness instructor for incarcerated youth. Bourke has made 4 Buddhist pilgrimages to India that were led by Stephen and Martine Batchelor and Dharmacharya Shantum Seth. Bourke sits on the board of the Metta Dharma Foundation.

Bourke Harris

Kevin Duggan

A self-described lifetime seeker, Kevin Duggan found his way onto this path of Dharma practice in a committed way in 1990. Kevin’s practice was inspired by, and founded upon Wes Nisker’s teachings in his weekly sitting group in Berkeley, the forerunner of our current Sangha.

As his practice gained importance in his life, he found his way to retreats and eventually to a role at Spirit Rock Meditation Center where he was Manager of the Residential Retreats Program for nearly five years. The opportunity to work closely with many on the SR teachers council, as well as the deeply practiced corps of retreat managers and staff, in support of thousands of practitioners seeking to deepen their practice and understanding of the Dharma was a great honor and a tremendous inspiration to Kevin’s practice. Kevin sits on the Metta Dharma Foundation Board of Directors.

Kevin Duggan

Leslie Baron

Leslie Baron has been practicing Buddhist meditation for over 20 years, following teachers in the Theravadan Vipassana tradition.

She teaches both mindful and concentration methods for beginners and experienced meditators alike. She is currently training with Mark Coleman of Awake in the Wild to develop mindful awareness practices in nature settings.

“Meditation is a training to reconnect and make friends with our own bodies and minds, and extend that friendship as we start to see that we are not separate from what surrounds us.”